Those Crazy Schuberts » California

Vintage ads as inspiration

Amy — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 10:56:55 +0000

I love love love pretty much anything mid-century.

Let’s face it. I pretty much wish I was born in 1934 like my grandparents so I could have lived through mid-century America.

I have been waiting my whole life (not an exaggeration) for mid-century style to come back.

I got a new soundtrack on CD the other day — Promises, Promises — and I really love the album design. It’s a musical based on the 1960s movie The Apartment, and so has a delicious mid-century feel.

love love

Add that to … I have been thinking about the direction I want the design of Lemon and Raspberry to go.

The site officially launched in May, with a free Wordpress template that I customized to the best of my limited ability, with photos I took of lemons and raspberries for the visuals.

I’ve also got an ebook half written, with the layout roughly started by my marketing partner, and I’m aiming for a mid-September release.

So, yeah, I should start thinking about what I want to do design-wise for real.

Vintage-inspired, mid-century awesomeness.

So I thought that a mid-century, vintage inspired branding of Lemon and Raspberry would be so fun! Something that *feels* contemporary (not old/vintage) but still inspired by mid-century style.

In order to get some ideas of what I like, I thought the best place to look for mid-century contemporary design was probably Vintage Ad Browser.

Good-bye hours and hours of my life.

I literally only got about 1/3 through 1 decade of 1 category.

This is going to take awhile ….

Here are some fun ones (all from the 1950s):

I started with the travel ads (love) and got more ideas for more projects ….

How much fun would it be to use vintage ads for a location in your scrapbook/travel journal for a trip?!

Like this one when you go to Oregon, or this one when you go to Switzerland, or the Arizona Biltmore or this other one for your trip to the Bahamas (Kaitlin)?

Fun ephemera to stick in whenever you need a transition, or as background to journaling or a title page …

But wait! there’s more!

TWA had this fantastic series of ads …. all with the exact same layout but with different stories …

[View with PicLens]

And, my personal favorite …. Southern California:

SoCal vintage ad (1950s)

I even found one for Rome …. And I’m sure I can find one for London and maybe even Alaska (next year’s vacation)

Super excited to set aside a Saturday to just immerse myself …. There are so so so so sso oooo many vintage ads uploaded to this site! I can’t wait!

Vintage Ad Browser

Take a look!

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Today I have a guest post up at My Sundry Musings – a blog friend of mine (Catherine) who is taking herself on an Hawaiian vacation and asked me to fill in a post for her!

So fun … (so jealous)

I’ve blogged 5 tips for better summer vacation photos! Take a look, leave a comment and let me know if you have questions!

The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl

Amy — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 10:55:02 +0000

Ok, not *technically* the Beatles ….

Although, they DID perform at the Hollywood Bowl (waaay back in 1964-5 I think) …. And recorded an album (The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl)

(video below … blame the poor sound quality on the legions of crazy fans)

Last Saturday, we ALSO saw the Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl – or, rather, a Beatles tribute concert ….

My parents, grandmother and great-aunt all came out from Phoenix for the weekend to attend the Hollywood Bowl. Also along for the ride, my uncle/aunt/kids who live in Santa Clarita (that side of the family has a long history of summertime-Bowl attendance).

If you’ve never been to the Hollywood Bowl …. it is no ordinary concert venue.

For one, it is an amphitheater. Huge outdoor seating area.

We were a bit nervous when the sky started POURING rain as soon as we got off the freeway … but it stopped relatively quickly and our seats weren’t even wet.

There’s kind of a tradition of picnicking at the Bowl. The fancy schmancy seats are boxed in areas WITH table to sit and eat dessert/wine/etc DURING the concert …. But everyone else just gets there early and parks somewhere on the premises with their picnic blanket and cooler.

We brought take-out from my favorite place (Tomato Patch), along with wine, water, sodas, and about 14 different kinds of sweets …

The show started at 8:30p ….. Just after sunset.

Andrew got there about 8:28p (he was at work)

Ted, Kristi and and Lucas got there about 8:38p (they were at Lucas’s basketball game)

First of all, you should know that I love (love love love love love) strings, and having the LA Philharmonic play with these Beatles songs was just fantastic. Makes my heart soar with the eagle’s nest

The concert was set up w/ 5 different vocalists … including Brian Stokes Mitchell (love him) and Todd Rundgren (Andrew loves him). ….

The vocalists were from every genre : jazz/pop, soul, rock, Broadway, and dirty old rockstar.

The whole gamut.

Which means a huge range of Beatles songs were covered.

(Todd Rundgren dressed up for ‘Mr. Kite’)

At the end, all 5 artists came on stage for the big finale numbers:

Let it Be (prompting the lighters/cell phones seen in the images below) and Hey, Jude.

The Beatles are the best …. if only one of them had been there …

P.S. I’m going back in a couple weeks …

another Mexico cruise sneak peek

Amy — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 10:04:07 +0000

Mexico Cruise : the Instax photos

Amy — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 10:48:16 +0000

In roughly chronological order …

The digital images to come ….

SCV – Cowboy Festival

Amy — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 10:37:20 +0000

I lived in Santa Clarita for something like 16 or 17 years and I never ever went to the Santa Clarita Cowboy Festival (formerly the ‘Cowboy Poetry Festival’) …. but as soon as we move to Encino, there we were. back in SCV!

Every April for a full weekend the city of Santa Clarita puts on their Cowboy Festival.

It reminded me of the Renaissance Faire … but for the ‘old west’ ….

For the last decade or so, the festival has been held at Melody Ranch, an old movie studio deep in old Newhall …. so interesting.

Of course, a big part of the ‘Festival’ is all the shopping there is to do. Some really tacky stuff. And some interesting stuff. Full period costumes (some fun fun stuff) …. pocket watches, parasols, …

And Confederate soldier hats. Which, frankly, I think are in TERRIBLE taste.

It’s been awhile since I’ve seen horses in real life …. which *sounds* bizarre …. but it was so fun!

All kind of vintage/period vignettes set up around the “ranch” …. including this tea set, an a woman sewing on a (very) vintage sewing machine ….

There were several men dressed in Union soldier uniforms and one of them was demonstrating how to shoe a horse, while another was teaching a couple little boys about guns …

so so so interesting!

looking down the street ….

Cowboy hats EVERYWHERE!

People dressed as modern-day cowboys, but also dressed in costumes….. *not* working the festival, just visiting, dressed in a period 3-piece suit and hat. Pushing a very 2010 stroller. ….

bunch of crazies

Melody Ranch boasts a film museum ….

I thought these guys doing … what is it? Blacksmithing? Is that a word?

Anyway. Cool to watch.

This dude in the white shirt …. you can’t see his face, but he was probably 15 or 16 …. !! Sticking his hands in the coal (look how dirty they are) and shaping the metal …. cool cool cool!

union soldiers …

Oh, yea, before I forget. We went with Andrew’s family. It was his dad’s bday and Andy paid for all 7 of us to go to the Festival for the day …. Fun family time.

I think most of the buildings had actual rooms and were not just false fronts. There was all kinds of things inside. Mostly shopping, but also music/concerts throughout the property.

Andrew, Daniel and I stumbled upon this gentleman doing card tricks.

First of all: Hilarious. Obviously, he’s been working on his ‘bit’ for awhile. Totally entertaining

Second of all: crazy good at magic/card tricks. I’d hire him for a party …

Third of all: He goes by the name Pop Haydn …. awesome.

And, as the grand finale …. a cupcake-cake for the birthdays (Andy and Daniel’s are a couple days apart)

love love ….

Morro Bay

Amy — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 10:36:32 +0000

On our way home from San Simeon, we stopped by Morro Bay …

It was a bit windy.

After driving around the town a bit, we stopped by a little hole-in-the-wall Mexican restaurant for lunch. It’s always weird choosing places like that. But it was SUPER busy, so how bad could it be? We got it to go and walked down to the bay ….

Where it was even more windy. And cold.

So it was kind of nice to have warm enchiladas to eat ….

the birds left us alone, so that was nice. And some nice passersby offered to take our picture … and *pretended* to steal my camera. Haha.

Then a nice walk … through town…. along the bay. Where there is this cute park with people playing chess ….

We stopped by an antique store to look …. and headed back home.

What an amazing weekend…. I love living in California and having all this so close ….

(and just for fun …. the Instax Mini pics I took in Morro Bay. The film, slightly cooler quality is so interesting)

Hearst Castle – San Simeon Lodge

Amy — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 10:35:44 +0000

Before we leave San Simeon for the foreseeable future ….. Just a glimpse at the San Simeon Lodge where we stayed (and where you should stay when you go to visit Hearst Castle).

This is the hotel that is *closest* to the edge of the Hearst land …. This is the hotel that is recommended by one of my favorite travel books (Road Trip USA by Jamie Jensen). …. This hotel is all 1 room wide, so every room has a courtyard view…. (and inexpensive)

love love

Can’t wait to go back!!!!!!

Hearst Castle – the end – Saturday

Amy — Mon, 31 May 2010 10:34:39 +0000

Finishing up our tour on Saturday morning of Hearst Castle ….

As we left we kitchen …. we exited the house (that word is used very loosely) into this little outdoor niche …. with more walls not quite finished …

Julia Morgan’s little lean-to outside the house where she worked. It was supposed to be temporary … and then something like 20 years later she’s still working out of this little hole.

And then 1 final stop at the indoor pool …

(sad how the ceiling is rotting a bit)

So. How did you like it? Are you going to visit Hearst Castle sometime soon?

Hearst Castle – kitchen – Saturday

Amy — Fri, 28 May 2010 10:34:04 +0000

Other than the amazing library, my FAVORITE part of the tour of Hearst Castle was the kitchen. …

Oh the kitchen …. I will never have a kitchen this size…. sad day.

It’s approximately L shaped, and you enter from the very top of the vertical part of the L …

The first room has tons of feet of counter space (and fake beer for effect). ..

Hearst has a Frigidaire … just like us!

And then there was ALL THIS space and appliances for cooking …

look at that stove top!

And that, my friends, is a Kitchen Aid mixer ….

(that vat in the back on the left of the photo? Yea, it’s for SOUP!)

(you like all the little visual cues to tell you what was prepared here?)

So.Much.Fun.

And far superior to my current kitchen, even if I am pretty excited about finally having an oven.

Hearst Castle – more guest rooms – Saturday

Amy — Thu, 27 May 2010 10:33:17 +0000

As part of the Hearst Castle Tour 2, not only did we get a peek at Hearst’s private rooms, we got to go up into one of the tower rooms (the first 3 images below) …

more of the amazing artwork Hearst collected ….

Ceiling :